From obscurity to major players

[el-remmen]

I prefer them unstatted.

 

[Henry]

How could one forget Meepo, who has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of D&D players?

Iggwilv has served as a starting point for so much Lore, yet I don't recall seeing her statted or made into an adventure focus anywhere. Drelnza, her vampiric daughter, saw a cameo in a module long ago, but nothing that focused on her. She was fated to be a bit-part for good.

I'd also love to see Zagrash, the Half-Orc Assassin from the old days, get the "Warduke" and "Lassiviren the Dark" type treatment. Half-orcs and Assassins used to go together like bread and butter long ago. Today... not so much.

 

[Shade]

I'd love to see Quimath, the Kyton lord of Jangling Hiter, get some more press [as well as that Ancient Baatorian he unknowingly has chained up in his tower...]

I'd also like to see Apomps the Triple Aspected get some airtime, being as how the 3e FF did their best to ignore him [if whoever wrote the entry was aware of it].

Then there's, well... all of the unique yugoloths: Mydianchlarus, Anthraxus, Bubonix, Cholerix, Typhus, Taba, Xenghara, and Charon. And then the Keeper of the Tower Arcane, Helekanalaith [who has a single quote and a listing of his title, and that's it ever], and his predecessor Larsdana Ap Neut [who likewise has a few lines on her in D&D ever]. I've made something of a pet project with the history and details of those latter two, just because of their role and the fact that they've never gotten real airtime in the published material.

And of course, Daru Ib Shamiq. Cannot forget him.

Ditto all that!

I'd also love to see Zagrash, the Half-Orc Assassin from the old days, get the "Warduke" and "Lassiviren the Dark" type treatment. Half-orcs and Assassins used to go together like bread and butter long ago. Today... not so much.

Yeah, bring him back, too.

I'll add Ilsidahur and Siragle, demon lords from Dungeon, and Sch'theraqpasstt, a demon lord from Dragon, that were briefly mentioned in FC1.

I'd also add Drelnza, the vampiress from Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and Tyranthraxus from the old "gold box" games.

 

[Piratecat]

For my own game, I've adopted Ioun as a major world-shaking figure.

I'd like to know about some of the things Acererak did while he was alive...

 

[Voadam]

Vecna's a big comeback, originally just a name with a little flavor attached to three artefacts in the 1e DMG, he then had a 1e module, had a cult in the 2e greyhawk sourcebooks, became a 2e Ravenloft darklord in the setting hardcover, had his own ravenloft domain sourcebook, then a 2e ending megamodule spanning three campaign settings to end up as a core 3e PH god with plenty of little hooks into 3e official products.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I prefer them unstatted.

I agree. I found it kind of lame when Vecna was made a god instead of the long dead legendary evil who's eye and hand were out there somewhere floating around sowing woe long after he has left this plane.

 

[robertsconley]

While writing Spectre of Sorrows and Price of Courage, I decided to make use of obscure Dragonlance material and give it some new life. PoC, especially, is full of newly-made major contenders.

Cheers,
Cam

Bargle was my first successful attempt at making a low-level nemesis for a campaign in the 1980's. I used the dungeon out of the red book (which had Bargle) as the first adventure. Then he escaped. Then escaped, and yes escaped again as the PCs foiled various plots.

He is crowning strike was when he found out about the paladin's true love and kidnapped her. He lured the paladin to the top of a tower where he had her imprisioned. When the paladin got there he found her in Bargle's arms willingly supporting Bargle. Astounded, he did nothing as she told him that she loves Bargle and was going away with him. Then they disappeared in a cloud of fog and left the paladin alone.

What really happened was Bargle used a spell to make a convincing illusion of her. Then used invisibility and a bunch of other spells to do the dramatic escape.

At first the party and the paladin called me on a plot cheese as they couldn't fathom why she would go with Bargle. I convinced to play with it and dig in further. Eventually they found out it was all a scam and went after Bargle and the paladin got his love back. The final confrontation with Bargle was pretty intense and the paladin had to do a quest to redeem himself as he lost his self-contol with Bargle.

The key to making Bargle a villian that the party hated was make some of this plots personally against the various PCs. Plus the party grew to respect him because he grew in levels at the same rate they did and every "escape" was a legitmate tactic with the spells at that level.

Rob Conley

 

[the Jester]

Don't forget Kyuss! The Age of Worms really brought him into the spotlight.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

I found it kind of lame when Vecna was made a god instead of the long dead legendary evil who's eye and hand were out there somewhere floating around sowing woe long after he has left this plane.

Ditto. I think Vecna is much more effective figure as a legendary and still feared evil wizard. Mystery is often more impacting in a setting than actual statting. Things left undefined can actually be more powerful in their own right.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Some of these are obscure! I never heard of Kyuss, any of the stuff Shemeska referred to, or a few of the others.